NATIONAL

“I grew up in these long queues, coming to get our asylum papers,” said Chido. Chido, Esther and Irvin, aged 12, 10 and 6 respectively, are missing school. Instead of going to class they are queuing at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Centre in Pretoria to renew their asylum-seeking papers.

Johannesburg Mayor, Herman Mashaba, has been criticised for his plan to use “shock and awe” to remove undocumented immigrants from the Johannesburg city centre. Throughout Mashaba’s term in office, he has been accused of fueling xenophobia by making unconstitutional statements about foreign nationals living in the city. Mashaba has been quoted widely saying that “foreigners, whether legal or illegal, are not the responsibility of the city” and that “(the city of Johannesburg) will only provide accommodation exclusively to South Africans”.

South Africa has extended the residency permits for nearly 200,000 Zimbabwean economic migrants by four years. Their current permits were set to expire December 31, which had raised fears of mass deportations. Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize said the government is extending the permits due to worsening economic conditions in Zimbabwe. She stressed that these are one-time extensions, not a path to permanent residency.

Last Thursday, the Western Cape High Court created a pathway to citizenship for children born to non-South African citizens. The South African Citizenship Act, 1995, initially contained two pathways for citizenship by naturalisation but neither applied to children born in South Africa to non-citizen parents. The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2010 came into force in January 2013 and created a new pathway to citizenship by naturalisation for children born in South Africa to parents who are not South African citizens or permanent residents. Under the amendments, such a child may apply for citizenship when they turn 18 years old if they have lived in South Africa from the time they were born and their birth was registered.

What migrants and refugees are living through in Libya should shock the collective conscience of Europe’s citizens and elected leaders – and give South Africa, also a major destination for refugees, something to think about.Blinded by the single-minded goal of keeping people outside of Europe, European funding is helping to stop boats from departing Libyan waters, but this policy is also feeding a criminal system of abuse. For South Africa, and any other migration destination country, this is a prime example of what to avoid at all costs when implementing frameworks to control borders and manage migration.

REGIONAL

Fugia is only a teenager, but her sense of ambition is tangible. Just 15 years old, she has plans to be a doctor, and she understands education is the surest path to achieving her dream. But getting an education isn’t easy. Fugia, whose parents are Somalian, is a refugee growing up in Kakuma, the largest refugee camp in existence, located in Kenya. Both logistical and cultural obstacles have prevented her from learning.But there’s one thing helping her change the narrative: tablets.

He escaped conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2012 and travelled 3 400km to Cape Town, an arduous journey that took several weeks. He was only 17 at the time, and came with his sister and two cousins, all of them under 20. This Saturday, almost five years after being granted asylum in South Africa, Arafat Gatabazi will embark on a 12km swim from Robben Island to Sea Point, raising funds for a crèche in Khayelitsha.

London/Johannesburg: Refugee children trying to reach Europe face beatings, forced labour and sexual exploitation, with sub-Saharan African children facing the highest risks, in part stoked by racism, a report found on Tuesday. Up to three quarters of children face abuse, exploitation and trafficking on Mediterranean migration routes, a joint report by the United Nations children’s agency Unicef and its migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), found.

When Kalilu Drammeh arrived in Libya he was in many ways similar to thousands of other migrants from across Africa, all of them desperate to cross the sea to get to Europe and, they hoped, a better life. But in Libya, Mr. Drammeh, like many other people from his native Gambia and other sub-Saharan countries, stood out among the swirl of migrants and was an automatic target for abuse for one obvious reason: his skin color is darker.

As political leaders prepare to meet in Malta to discuss measures to stem the flow of migrants and refugees from Africa to Europe, Patrick Kingsley of The Guardian newspaper,meets the smugglers and the smuggled on a route through the desert from Niger.

INTERNATIONAL

It wasn’t until I was back home in London, a few weeks ago, curled up in my boyfriend’s bed with the TV on, that the full weight of what I’d witnessed a few days earlier really hit me. I broke down completely; partly out of a fear that there was nothing I could do to help and partly out of guilt and gratitude for my privileged life.

A few months after fleeing war in Syria for safety in Germany, Ahmad Chahabi was at Berlin’s main bus station. As he waited for a friend, he saw a child get off a bus with her family. Suddenly, the girl dived to the ground, sobbing. When he looked up, Chahabi realized she had mistaken a passenger jet overhead for a bomber. “It’s not enough to move from one place to another,” Chahabi realized. “War follows you.”